Agile development methods at DEUTZ commended by the Fraunhofer Institute

DEUTZ AG commended for ‘Successful Practices’

Agile development methods enable short project cycles and customised solutions

DEUTZ engineers develop marketable electric drives within six months

The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) has commended DEUTZ for its exemplary use of agile development methods within the innovation process. Five companies from a field of 159 received IPT’s Successful Practices title and DEUTZ was among them. Daimler AG, CLAAS, the KION Group and the Voith Group also received awards.

The aim of the global benchmarking project is to highlight the dynamic techniques used by leading companies in the early phase of the innovation process and to identify how agile development methods add value. The ITP analysed detailed case studies and conducted in-depth interviews with the most promising candidates. The five best companies selected on this basis were then visited and assessed on-site, with the consortium panel of judges verifying extremely successful application of the practices in all cases.

DEUTZ AG developed its first e-drive prototypes using the scrum method in September 2018. This approach to product development breaks the project down into short cycles – called sprints – in order to rapidly complete individual parts of the overall project. The DEUTZ engineers used this method to develop a marketable electrified solution, part of the E-DEUTZ strategy, within just six months.

“Agile methods such as scrum, kanban and design thinking have been a core part of the development process at DEUTZ since 2014,” explains Michael Halfen, head of DEUTZ’s Agile Competence Centre. “They enable us to achieve results much more quickly, while the close collaboration within interdisciplinary teams ensures that the precise specifications are met. The fact that the effectiveness of this methodology at DEUTZ has now also been confirmed by a prestigious benchmarking study shows us that we are on the right track.”

DEUTZ also encourages the use of innovation processes and agile methods at its Innovation Centre, which opened in November 2018. In a state-of-the-art facility at the Cologne-Porz site, DEUTZ employees have 380 square metres of space to work on ideas, develop them into prototypes, and shape them into a project, a product or an investment opportunity.

Michael Halfen, head of the Agile Competence Centre at DEUTZ (fifth from left), accepts the Successful Practices award for the exemplary use of agile development methods.